


After

by NovaCactus



Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Asexual Captain, Asexual Character, Dialogue Heavy, Don't Bite The Sun Alternate ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Not Beta Read, Past Relationship(s), Seriously it's 90 percent dialogue, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Sorry JunLei, it's almost a love story but it's far too soon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 15:37:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21340603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaCactus/pseuds/NovaCactus
Summary: Parvati's date doesn't go as planned, and the Captain is there to pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Female Captain & Parvati Holcomb, Parvati Holcomb/Junlei Tennyson, The Captain/Parvati Holcomb
Comments: 9
Kudos: 120





	After

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, thanks for showing interest in this. I haven't been inspired to write in a long time so please enjoy the crap I put together in two hours. Thank you! Read, Comment, and give a Kudos if you like it.

There was a pivotal moment in Parvati’s life where she could have had her happy ending, Vivianne, Captain of the Unreliable, thought bitterly. The two of them spent weeks together, collecting cleaning supplies, cakes and casseroles, and very specific dress clothes, and spending many, many bits with the sole purpose of impressing a certain head engineer of the Groundbreaker. 

It didn’t go well if the sobbing mess of woman pressed into her shoulder was any indication. 

“Parvati, Parvati, dear, what happened?” she asked, pulling the woman away from her shoulder. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, her lip pouting and nose bright red. She had opted to forgo the hair bun and let her hair down for the evening and was now paying for it with pieces sticking to her tear tracks and covering half her face. The brunette sniffed and rubbed at her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Captain. I really thought she liked me. I dragged you all over the colonies for nothing.” Parvati looked down, fiddling with her fingers in her lap. “The date was going great. She loved the Casserole and Sweetheart Cakes. We were getting on fine! We have a lot in common! But…” She trailed off, looking nervously around, avoiding the Captain’s eyes. Vivianne raised an eyebrow at the girl. 

Parvati Holcomb was the sweetest girl in all of Halcyon, kind and energetic. She had a passion for machines unmatched, and the brains behind it. If anyone deserved her fairytale ending, it was her. She didn’t deserve to sit here, tear-stained and heartbroken.

“Fuck her.” Vivianne spat. Parvarti jerked up at her language but didn’t say anything. “I’m serious. She doesn’t deserve you. I bet you told her about your thing with physical stuff and she high-tailed it at the first chance, didn’t she?” 

Parvati fiddled with the buttons on her coat. 

“W-well I wouldn’t say that’s exactly what happened. It was more of a...a mutual thing really.”

Her Captain snorted. 

“Really? A mutual thing. That’s why you’re sitting on my bed at two in the morning crying your eyes out. Sure.”

“I really liked her, Captain. I wish we could’ve been something more, but she said she liked that kind of stuff and she really couldn’t see herself living without it.”

“Darling, I don’t know what folks nowadays call that, but 70 years ago we called that bein’ shallow, which is not a good trait. On the other hand, I gotta hand it to her, at least she was honest from the get-go. Better to mention it now than when you’ve gotten yourself more attached.”

Parvati was silent for a moment, possibly contemplating what she said. Or not, Vivianne never knows what goes through the woman’s head. She could be thinking about what repairs the ship needs for all she knows.

“Is there something wrong… with me?” she asked tentatively. 

“No! Of course not!” Vivianne balked, perhaps a little too loudly. “You’re just a little different is all. I’ll fuck up anyone who says otherwise, you hear? Folks are too judgemental, always have been, always will be. Its the nature of the beast, you know. You just gotta find that one person who’s a little less judgy than others, who you think you can tolerate for the rest of your life, then you sink your teeth and claws into them and never let go.”

Parvati sat back a little, taking her in. Her dirty blonde hair was constantly tied back in a messy bun, framing her forest-green eyes. Her nose was gently sloped and her lips were full, her golden skin was freckled. It would be hard to tell she’d spent the last several months traveling across the Halcyon cluster, killing dozens of marauders and outlaws, save for a deep scar crossing the bridge of her nose, and an even nastier scar peeking out from under her collar she got from a particularly angry Raptidon.

“Did you have anybody before you were, you know, frozen?” 

“Nah, I’d had some girlfriends before but I wasn’t exactly missed when I left for the Colonies anyway, you know?” Vivianne answered simply, digging through her sheets in search of a flask she’d thrown on the bed earlier. Her fingers brushed against the cold metal, and she grinned as she pulled it out. “Besides, I wasn’t really popular. I guess you could say, I got the same problem.” She took a pull from the container, choking a little at the taste. She offered it to Parvarti, who at the very least wasn’t crying anymore.

She looked surprised at the confession.

“You have the same problem as me?” she asked, her eyebrows meeting her hairline, and accepting the flask. Vivianne shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I just never really cared, you know? It was always just who I am. I never considered that something was wrong was me, I just figured something was wrong with everyone else. Then, one day, I gave it a try. Admittedly, I was pressured into it a little, but ultimately I consented.”

Vivianne looked up at Parvati, who was watching her with fascination. She blushed a little at the attention, taking the flask from her and drank another mouthful.

“It was… not awful. It wasn’t really good either. I don’t think either of us enjoyed it that much, kind of hard to when one of you is obviously not having fun. We broke up not long after. She didn’t say it was because of the sex, but it was obvious.” 

“That’s just terrible, Captain,” Parvati spoke, at last, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. Vivianne shrugged.

“That was, what? Eighty years ago? I’ve been over it for a while,” She chuckled. “I accepted myself a long time ago, darling, and you would be wise to accept yourself too, lest you end up as I had at the time, pressured into doing something you know you’re not gonna want to do, into being with people who aren’t good for you, and who won’t fully accept you. People aren’t going to change for you as much as you want them to.”

The buzz was finally starting to kick in, and she could tell it was for her subordinate, too, her cheeks flushed and her eyes unfocused. 

“Captain, would you go on a date with me?” Parvati asked, seemingly out of nowhere. Vivianne raised her eyebrow at the woman, who now realized what she’d asked of her. “I-I just mean, we have so much in common, on that front, and I really enjoyed your company tonight.”

“Parvati, Parvati,” Vivianne clicked her tongue. “You just got dumped. You’re emotionally fragile, and you’re seeking solidarity in someone who was comforting you at a low point.” Parvati’s face fell, and she looked at her hands in lap. Vivianne leaned back against the wall and watched her. She had considered romantically pursuing the girl at one point in time, but once she started showing interest in Junlei, she had quickly given up interest to let the girl chase her true happiness. Look at how that ended. 

“I’m sorry. I-I should let you rest. We’ll be landing on Monarch in the morning.” She stood to leave, but Vivianne reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“Parvati. I won’t lie and say I haven’t considered you before, but now isn’t a good time. I’m serious about your emotional state. Take time to grieve, and once you’ve done that, take time to think. Come back to me in, say, a month. Make sure you’ve really thought about it. We’re too old to play games.” 

Parvati smiled at her through her tears, nodded, and left the Captain of the Unreliable alone in her Quarters.


End file.
